From the Desk of Harold Poole

FLASHBACK: That Time Obama Called Libya A ‘S**t Show’

Following President Trump’s Thursday comments, it’s worth noting that former President Obama called the African country of Libya a “shit show” just two years ago.

The comments were recorded in an interview with The Atlantic. The wide-ranging interview was based on Obama’s foreign policy over his eight years in office. During one portion of the interview, Obama said described Libya as a “mess” to the interviewer but behind closed doors called the country a “shit show.”

“So we actually executed this plan as well as I could have expected: We got a UN mandate, we built a coalition, it cost us $1 billion — which, when it comes to military operations, is very cheap. We averted large-scale civilian casualties, we prevented what almost surely would have been a prolonged and bloody civil conflict. And despite all that, Libya is a mess.

Mess is the president’s diplomatic term; privately, he calls Libya a “shit show,” in part because it’s subsequently become an ISIS haven — one that he has already targeted with air strikes. It became a shit show, Obama believes, for reasons that had less to do with American incompetence than with the passivity of America’s allies and with the obdurate power of tribalism.

The comments received little coverage when made public at the end of Obama’s term.